CS-Cart "Social networks auto-post" add-on helps online store owners to post information about their products to the business pages on the most popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ automatically. It is an easy and comfortable way to announce new products or any product-related events on your social business page timeline directly from the admin back-end.

Nowadays social media has a great impact on promoting one’s online store business. Almost every company has or plans to have an official Twitter and a business page on Facebook and Google+ that help to keep clients informed about the latest events and, of course, product offers. Alt-team has developed a module that is aimed to save lots of time of an online store administrator allowing him to publish information about products to social networks in a natural way by pressing one button.

Features:

publishing information about products on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ business pages directly from the CS-Cart back-end;

ability to enable or disable publishing to a necessary social network;

ability to post such product info as a product title, link, image and meta description;

ability to create social statuses (custom messages) that will be added to a transferred product info;

once created, social statuses (custom messages) can be used as many times as you need;

this add-on works via applications that are necessary to create on Facebook and Twitter. There is no need to create an application for Google+ .

How the add-on works:

1. First, log in to your Facebook/Twitter account and create an application that will post data to your business page.

It is not necessary to create an application for Google+. It is just necessary to have a Google+ business page.

We have prepared detailed instructions how to create an application for Facebook and Twitter and how to create a Google+ business page. Please, click the App instruction tab to read the details.

2. Once the applications are created, it is necessary to enter Facebook and Twitter applications' details and Google+ business page details into the add-on settings to connect them with the add-on. Please, click the Documentation tab to read the details.

3. When all settings are set and the social networks selected, you need to create your own product social statuses (custom messages) that will be posted to the social networks above the product info. Please, click the Documentation tab to read the details.

4. When statuses are created, on the products manage page and on product editing pages there is a new "Social statuses" field where you should select the necessary status, click Save and the product with the selected custom message will be posted to the social networks enabled in the add-on settings.

Product info with a custom message is posted to Google+ and Twitter even if you are not logged into them. It is necessary to be logged into Facebook so that the add-on could post information on there. The add-on will ask you to login to Facebook if you are not logged in.

Compatibility:

The add-on is compatible with CS-Cart Professional 3.0.x, CS-Cart Professional 2.2.x., CS-Cart 4.0.1 - 4.3.5

The add-on works with a multi-store CS-Cart only if you have one common business page for all storefronts within your multi-store system.

Notes:

1. We offer free installation of this add-on for the default CS-Cart versions (that don't have any file changes and additional modules). Otherwise the installation may require additional charge.

2. After the payment is confirmed, you will be able to download the add-on from the order details page.

3. Due to the fact that Twitter and Google+ changed their API, the add-on version for CS-Cart 2.2.4 and 3.0.x stopped posting to Twitter and Google+. If you have CS-Cart 2.2.4 or 3.0.x and would like to use this add-on, please contact us, we will make the necessary changes to the add-on free of charge. The add-on for CS-Cart 4 uses new API and works absolutely fine.

Please remember that we can make any changes in this add-on due to your demands.

4. Fill out the required fields, agree to the Developer Rules, fill out a captcha and click the Create your Twitter application.

5. Remember the Consumer key and Consumer secret on the Application page you have created.

6. Click the Settings tab. Scroll down to the Application type section, change the Access level from “Read Only” to “Read and Write”. Click the Update this Twitter application's settings.

7. Come back to the Details tab. Scroll down to the Your access token and click the Create my access token button.

8. Refresh the page and remember the Access token and Access token secret. You will need to use this information in the add-on settings.

9. Make sure you have “Read and Write” access level.

How to create a Google+ page for your website

1. Login to your Google account.

2. Click More on the left panel and choose Pages.

3. Click the Create a new page button in the upper right.

4. Pick the category, add the necessary info and click the Create button.

5. Remember the URL of your page.

Please note! It will be necessary to enter your Google email and password in the add-on settings. Thus, if there is someone who can have access to the add-on settings except you, we would recommend you to create a separate Google account for your website so that nobody could know your personal Google details.

The add-on settings

Go to Administration -> Add-ons -> "Social networks auto-post" add-on. After the add-on installation click "settings" opposite to the add-on name. On the appeared page it will be necessary to complete the following fields:

To see this id, right click on the profile image of your Facebook page and select "Copy Link Location". You will see a URL that looks like this: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.441812191617.236038.126247201617 Your ID is the last number after the period. In this example it is 126247201617

Title - type in the status title. Keep it short, for example, New product, Back in stock, Special offer, Best seller, etc. Title is not transferred to the social networks, it is for you only.

Message (Facebook, Google+) - type in a message that will be transferred to Facebook and Google+ business pages above the product info.

Message (Twitter) - type in a message that will be transferred to Twitter. Please, keep it as short as possible. We recommend you to type in a message not more than 60 symbols because except this message a product title and a shortened product link will be transferred to Twitter. Remember that the whole Twitt is limited to 140 symbols.

Status - choose Active to be able to use this social status. Choose Disabled if you currently don't want to use it.

4. Press Create.

How to assign a custom message to a product and post a product to the social networks

Use the Products manage page:

1.When Social statuses are created, go to Products -> Products. On the products manage page there is a new field Social status.

2. Choose the necessary Social status for a necessary product from the drop-down list.

3. Click Save, the product with your message will be posted to the social networks that you have selected in the add-on settings. The process of posting may take several seconds.

Use the Product editing page:

1. When Social statuses are created, go to Products -> Products -> Edit the necessary product. On the product editing page in the General tab there is a new field Social status.

2. Choose the necessary Social status from the drop-down list.

3. Click Save, the product with your message will be posted to the social networks that you have selected in the add-on settings. The process of posting may take several seconds.

Please notice! When you first click to post a product, your Facebook application will request a permission to post data on your Facebook fan page. Please, allow to do it.

Also notice! If you are not logged into Facebook, your Facebook application will request to login to Facebook to transfer data in there. Product info with a custom message is posted to Google+ and Twitter even if you are not logged into them.

Notice! Remember that meta description of your product is posted to the social networks. Always fill in the meta description field on a product editing page before posting.

Installation

1. Download the archive with the Social networks auto-post add-on.

2. Unpack the archive's content and upload files to your server in the root directory with the installed CS-Cart.

3. Log into the administration panel of your store, go to the Administration -> Add-ons page.

4. In the list of add-ons find the Social networks auto-post add-on and click Install opposite to its name.

5. Choose Active status.

6. Don't forget to fill out the necessary fields in the add-on settings (see the Documentation tab).

Please do some more research...... for fashion and certain categories - Pinterest does work"

– Simon

"Hello Simon!

Unfortunately, currently we do not plan to support Pinterest because general statistics shows that not many ecommerce merchants use it, we afraid our contribution to Pinterest won't pay off. But we plan to develop with addon further and hope to add a possibility to post pages to Facebook, Twitter, Google+. "